ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 465
Ilan Ben Zion is an AFP reporter and a former news editor at The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
One of the Israelis injured in the stabbing outside the Old City of Jerusalem was injured while grappling with his assailant.
The Israeli who was seriously injured was accidentally shot by Border Police officers who responded to the incident and shot the Palestinian attackers.
One attacker is dead and the second is seriously injured and still receiving treatment at the scene.
Jaffa Gate right now. pic.twitter.com/ZQRO8xUgLo
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) December 23, 2015
A Jerusalem police spokesman tells Israel Radio that the attack outside the Old City of Jerusalem “could have been much worse” if it weren’t for the quick response of Border Police soldiers who were at the scene.
He says the women were stationed at the Jaffa Gate when they discerned the attack taking place not far from their position. They ran over and shot the attackers in the midst of the attack, killing one terrorist and injuring a second.
One of the three Israelis hurt in the incident was reportedly hit by police gunfire and seriously hurt.
One of the Border Police soldiers who shot the knife-wielding Palestinians outside was a trained medic and began treating the injured after taking down the attacker.
Police shared a photo of her bloodstained armored vest following the attack (It can be seen here, but you’ve been warned. It’s a bit graphic).
Magen David Adom shares a video from the scene of the attack
Video from the scene of the stabbing attack outside of the Old City of Jerusalem. (Credit: MDA) pic.twitter.com/PzeAWsSoce
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) December 23, 2015
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat arrives at the scene of the attack, not far from city hall, and says that the “wave of attacks across the country has yet to end.”
“I’ve spoken with the police officers who attacked the terrorists and they are the heroes of the day,” he says. “Our war against the terror of knives continues.”
He implores Israelis to continue to visit Jerusalem despite the attack.
Paramedics say that the critically injured man hurt in an attack was shot by Border Police. Aharon Adler, the paramedic who treated the victim, says he was evacuated immediately to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem and taken straight to the operating room.
The second attacker involved in a stabbing attack outside the Old City of Jerusalem dies of a gunshot wound, Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem says.
Both Palestinians were shot by Border Police while stabbing Israelis outside the Jaffa Gate. The first died earlier.
The IDF has instructed farmers to limit their activity near the border with Lebanon, just days after a senior Hezbollah commander was assassinated in Syria and rockets fired from Lebanon landed in northern Israel.
Soldiers operating along the northern border have been instructed to wear helmets and bulletproof vests to protect themselves against possible sniping from across the border.
Hezbollah vowed revenge for the assassination of Samir Kuntar on Sunday, which it claimed was carried out by Israel.
Law enforcement has yet to determine the identities of the two terrorists in today’s attack as the pair were not carrying IDs or other documents, a police spokeswoman says.
— Judah Ari Gross
A video uploaded to YouTube by Haaretz after the stabbing near the Jaffa Gate appears to show bystanders beating injured terror suspects who lie prone on the ground. One Jewish man kicks something, likely one of the Palestinian men who were shot by police, as officers make feeble attempts to prevent bystanders from approaching.
Palestinian media identify the attackers killed by police outside the Jaffa Gate as Anan Abu Habsah and Issa Assaf from Qalandia.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is the clear leader among Republican voters polled by CNN, with 39% compared to second place Ted Cruz, who got 18%.
The full poll is published today.
A 70-year-old woman from the southern town of Arad chased an ultra-Orthodox man down the street with a knife shouting “Go work!”
The man was unharmed and the woman was arrested, Army Radio reporter Uriya Elkayam reports.
ערד, לפני זמן קצר: אישה בת 70 רדפה עם סכין מטבח אחרי חסיד גור, כשהיא קוראת לו "לך לעבוד". לחרדי שלום, האישה נעצרה pic.twitter.com/RfQIrf0pwZ
— אוריה אלקיים (@uriyaelk) December 23, 2015
Four people were arrested outside the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court at a protest over the detention of suspects in the Duma firebombing case. The four were arrested for attacking police and disturbing the peace, Ynet reports.
The son of a senior Hamas commander who was killed at the start of Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 is dead after a car crash in the Gaza Strip.
Malik Ja’abari, son of Ahmed Ja’abari, former head of Hamas’s armed wing, died aged 20 in a car crash in the neighborhood of Shejaiya.
وفـاة الشاب مالك الجعبري 20 عاماً، نجل الشهيد القائد أحمد الجعبري بحادث سير بحي الشجاعية شرق غزة . pic.twitter.com/oirUcJfVsC
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) December 23, 2015
Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, says on Twitter that Malik Ja’abari was an operative in the group’s elite unit.
Police share a photo of the knives used in the attack at the Jaffa Gate earlier in the day. The police confirm that the two suspected attackers, both killed during the attack by Border Police, were from the Qalandia refugee camp north of Jerusalem.
Palestinian media identified the two men as Anan Abu Habsah and Issa Assaf, both 21.
Police confirm both Palestinian terrorists came from Kalandia area. Both shot & killed. Knifes used in attack. pic.twitter.com/2UZdfuOM9R
— Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) December 23, 2015
Visiting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko postpones his visit to the Western Wall after the terror attack at the Jaffa Gate, Army Radio reports.
He was initially supposed to visit the Jewish holy site around the time of the attack, which took place just after 1 p.m., but canceled, then decided to visit at 7:30 p.m.
The IDF shares a video of troops raiding a Hamas lab in East Jerusalem used for creating explosives for attacks on Israel.
The full story by Judah Ari Gross is here.
A Border Police soldier who was involved in stopping a terrorist attack earlier today and shooting the two Palestinian attackers dead recounts the moment of the incident.
“We saw at least three people starting to run from IDF Square toward the Jaffa Gate, really running like crazy, [and] we understood that something’s happening there,” she said.
“We immediately ran toward them to see what’s happening and we saw two [attackers] on one [victim],” she said.
Immediately they opened fire, inflicting deadly wounds on the two attackers and injuring an Israeli caught in the crossfire.
Interior Minister Silvan Shalom is expected to tender formally his resignation from government amid a sexual harassment scandal, Channel 2’s Amit Segal reports. (Update: The allegations against Shalom were not substantiated and a police investigation was subsequently closed.)
Israel has returned the bodies of two Palestinian terrorists: the remains of Ahmed Abu al-Rab, 17, who tried to stab soldiers at the Jalameh crossing in the northern West Bank at the beginning of November, and those of Sadeh Gharibeh, 16, who attempted to stab soldiers near Jerusalem in November.
The UN General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution calling on Israel to compensate Lebanon to the tune of $856.4 million for an oil slick on the Lebanese coast during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
This is the ninth time the Assembly passed the resolution, with 171 states voting in favor, six against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, United States), and three abstentions (Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Tonga).
The police say they know the identity of the man who beat and injured a Palestinian terror suspect at Jaffa Gate attack and are trying to find him to take his testimony about his actions.
A video published after today’s attack showed several Jewish bystanders beating and kicking a Palestinian terrorist who police had shot and represented no threat.
An Israeli man who was injured by police gunfire during a terrorist attack at the Jaffa Gate earlier today succumbed to his wounds after undergoing surgery at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
The identity of the 40-year-old man from Jerusalem was not immediately available.
According to Channel 2, the man was the 23rd person killed in the latest round of violence that started in October.
The man killed in today’s terror attack is named as Ofer Ben Ari, 40, who leaves behind a wife and two daughters.
An Israeli man injured in the Jaffa Gate attack earlier today is dead after succumbing to his wounds at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comments on the death of an Israeli in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem at an event marking the 90th birthday of Moshe Arens.
“We open the evening with a moment of sadness. An Israeli citizen lost his life in another attack by terrorists,” he says. Netanyahu mentions only one victim, though two died of injuries from the attack.
“I want to convey my condolences to the family and of course praise the two Border Police soldiers who acted quickly under not simple circumstances,” he says. “We are under a continued terror attack. The whole world is awash in wild terrorism and we’re fighting it and we’ll overcome it.”
Reuven Biermacher, 45, a rabbi at an Old City yeshiva, is named as the second victim killed in today’s terror attack.
Ofer Ben Ari, 46, died earlier from injuries sustained in the attack.
Somalia announces that it has banned Christmas this year, the BBC reports.
“Those celebrations are not in any way related to Islam,” an official at the East African country’s religious affairs ministry says.
Hotels and public spaces are forbidden from observing the Christian holiday.
Shocking footage released on Channel 10 tonight shows right-wing extremists who are friends with the suspected perpetrators of the Dawabsha family murder celebrating the killing at a wedding last week.
The video shows revelers at the Jerusalem celebration waving knives, rifles, pistols and a Molotov cocktail, and stabbing a photo of the Dawabsha family. An hour earlier, the detainees’ lawyers held a press conference at the same wedding hall claiming the suspects were tortured by the Shin Bet.
The crowd in the video chants the lyrics of a song which include a verse from Judges 16:28, quoting Samson blinded in Gaza saying “let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes” — but change the word Philistines to Palestine.
Zionist Union MK and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni got up before the Knesset and railed against the video of wedding-goers celebrating the murder of the Dawabsha family, saying “this is the group that wants to destroy the Jewish Israel, to destroy this state from within, to destroy the government from within and sow hate.”
Pointing at Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smutrich, Livni said “these are the people you protest being interrogated by the Shin Bet.
עליתי עכשיו לדבר על החטיבה להתיישבות, מזועזעת מהתחקיר בערוץ 10. היהדות שלי זה לא היהדות של הרוקדים על דם של תינוקות pic.twitter.com/JA8HMCFKgE
— ציפי לבני (@Tzipi_Livni) December 23, 2015
“My Judaism is not the Judaism of those dancing on the blood of babies,” she says on Twitter.
An unconfirmed report says that a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip just moments ago impacted just 50 yards from the border fence inside the Palestinian territory.
No sirens went off. No injuries or damage are reported.
It is unclear which organization fired the missile.
One of the victims in today’s terror attack is the brother of a prominent Jewish Argentinian author, Marcelo Birmajer, according to local media.
Reuven Birmajer, father of seven, died from stab wounds inflicted in a terror attack at Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate. He taught at a yeshiva in the Old City.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog tweets that the youths seen in the clip celebrating the Dawabsha murder are “lunatics, lowlifes, you forgot what it means to be Jewish. You put to shame the kippa, the talit and the name of God. Those who dance at a wedding and celebrate the death of a baby in his sleep are not Jews and not Israeli. They should be locked up as soon as possible.”
